“See, I havee set before you this day a blessing and a curse; A blessing, if (asher) you obey the commandments of the Lord your God, which I command you this day; And a curse, if (im) you will not obey the commandments of the Lord your God, but turn aside from the way which I command you this day, to go after other gods, which you have not known” (Devarim: 11, 26-28)
This opening passage states that blessing will be given upon those who are obedient and the disobedient are threatened that they will be cursed. In addition, this passage states the Jewish fundamental belief that man has free will.
Devarim Rabbah (4, 3) says that evil overtakes those who commit evil and good will take over those who do good.
Nechama Leibowitz asks a question on the above text. The Torah writes “ a blessing, if (asher) you obey.” “A curse if (im) you will not obey”. Usually, the Torah would write “ im” in both conditions. A more accurate Englishinterpretation would be “ A blessing that you obey… a curse if you will not obey”. What is the point of this variation? She answers the question based on a Malbim. The Malbim gives the following explanation: “ a blessing that you obey” implies then that the very act of obedience of the mitzvoth constitutes the blessing. One cannot imagine that there is a reward in this world for abiding by the mitzvoth; the good deed itself is the reward. It is not like a master who rewards his servant for loyalty and punishes him for disobedience. The parallel is to a doctor who assures his patient that he will be well, as long as he takes his medications, or else he will die. The consequences here are inherent in the deed itself.
The Malbim’s interpretation basically expands on the concept that the reward of a mitzvah is a mitzvah- that virtue is its own reward. However this does not explain why the Torah changes its attitude in respect to sins and uses the conditional “im”. Is it not equally true to say that sin brings its own punishment? Isn’t the “reward” of a transgression a transgression? Bachya takes the Malbim a step further and explains the differences between “asher” and“im” in our context. Bachya writes that “im” is an expression of doubt, which is obviously inappropriate in relation to the obedience of Torah, but is appropriate in the context of punishment. Therefore, the text uses the word “asher”, an expression of certainty with reference to obedience.
Rashi explains that the bracha, is only on condition that bnei yisrael listen; “al m’nat”. What is Rashi trying to say here? To answer this we need to understand the difference between “al m’nat” and“im”, “if” (according to the Talmud). “Al m’nat” impliesretroactive force; “ I’ll reward you if you do this”. This implies that one will lead to the other after the work is done- on performance. However if one were to say “ I will pay you on account of the work that you do “, that would imply a retroactive obligation to pay even before the act is done. So, how can this be applied to Rashi’s interpretation(“on account of”) to the words “the blessing that you obey”? The meaning is that the blessing is given to man on account, even before he has proved himself deserving by obedience of the mitzvoth.
At the end of creation before man, the Torah says, “ And God saw all that He had made and behold it was very good”. The world was created for man to enjoy and to serve Hashem, on condition that he would be obedient to the will of God. The curse comes only afterwards, if man is disobedient. This is the reason for the deviation of terminology. The world id not originally evil and full of misfortune in order to be redeemed by man’s good. It is actually the opposite and all the ugliness and misfortune in the world are consequences of the bad committed by man; “and the curse if you will not obey” (11, 28).
Rav Hirsch writes that “asher tishmiu” means that the spiritual and moral act accomplished by doing every mitzvah represents in itself a blessed progress, an advancement of our entire personality; as if to say that each time we carry out a mitzvah we really “bless” ourselves. In addition, the words “re’eh”, “see!” is used specifically here to make the point that Bnei Yisrael has formed this conviction, not by belief or word of mouth, but by actually experiencing and seeing all that Hashem has done for them. They literally saw Hashem’s power and now Hashem has placed it in their hands the choice of whether or not their future will be one of blessings or curses.
Everyday, we are faced with the option to choose good or bad, to act with obedience or to go against Hashem’s will. After all that Hashem performed for us, thousands of years ago and today, would it not make sense and seem moral to live according to His word? Hashem created the world for our benefit and without evil, but it is because of us and our misdoings that misfortune was brought to the world. However, we can fix it. When waking up in the morning, don’t press the snooze button five times in a row, get up and daven. And when getting dressed, choose the less-tight outfit. In the hallway in school, greet everyone with “sever panim yafot” and be outgoing to the shy girl. God gives us the opportunity to “bless” ourselves when doing His mitzvoth, and we need to understand that the blessing is inherent of the mitzvah. We cant live our lives thinking, that when we do good, Hashem will bless us and that if we act with disobedience, Hashem will punish us, because the reality is that we punish ourselves when doing the wrong thing. One disobedient act leads to another so be alert when making decisions because it is in our hands to determine the life we will lead.
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